Sucessful GPN’s last General Meeting at Clearwater, Florida

Last March, we held our last General Meeting. The host was our American and Canadian member, International Motorcoach Group (IMG) and its local operator, Escot Buses. Unique to this event, in the history of GPN, was the fact that we held our meeting together with the IMG Focus 25 Sales meeting. In both agendas, it was scheduled “join sessions” – where the IMG companies met with the GPN companies. These join sessions were very productive and really appreciated by all the members, as, they gave a great opportunity for all companies to understand what they offer each other.

Between the most relevant discussions during the two day conference, the different proposals made in order to change some articles in the bye-laws. These proposals were discussed with various updates agreed, for instance in the section of structure (now each member is allowed to represent not more than 3 countries with three votes), or for instance in the section of membership, now if a member has a participation quote which is fewer than 50 % within 2 years, the board of directors will investigate the good will of being a member of the network and can propose the annual meeting to finish the membership of the GPN member.
Throughout the conference much emphasis was placed on finding the way to improve the accountability of the business that GPN generates for each company. As a result of the conversations in this regard, during the next months we will set up a common process to every member with the main criterias that should be taken into account to consider a sale a result of GPN.

An informative and interesting tour of Escot Buses’s facility took place between agenda items on day two, followed by a visit at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (see some pictures below)

There were other important decisions taken during the meeting, such as the investment in a new website with the most modern tools in the market, ready by Moscow. In terms of membership, it was decided to invest in a deep market research, done by university’s programs, that identifies GPN’s interests in terms of membership’s growth and that identifies the key companies in those areas.
We could enjoy of a great lunch sponsored by VDL Bus & Coach and two amazing dinners sponsored by MCI/Setra and ABC/Vanhool.

On behalf of all GPN members and IMG shareholders we would like to thank you to Brian Scott for this outstanding meeting!!